Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective

[cornerofmadness]

Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Somehow growing up I missed these and I would have been the right age for them in the 70s. I had to read something from the decade I was born so here I am many years after the fact reading about Leroy Brown. I was expecting something like the Hardy Boys (which I did read so it wasn't as if my parents decided this was for boys and left me in the corner with Nancy Drew).

I probably would have liked it better when I was 10. This doesn't have the power to ascend into the ageless realm (but that's me) I do however like the set up for young minds. Leroy 'Encyclopedia' Brown is so smart he not only helps his police officer father solve crimes, he has set up his own detective agency, mostly catering to kids (like who stole my tent and things like that) though he did help his father solve a bank robbery.

Most of these loosely connected stories are only a few pages long and then are actually reader inserts. You the reader have to figure out how Encyclopedia figured it out. So yes, really it's great for young minds. It teaches them critical thinking. The solutions are at the end. On the other hand, they're so short it really is hard to connect with any of the characters on a personal level.

That said, it is a classic for a reason and I liked that I could get this 60 year old book off a library shelf which pretty much only happens at small town libraries like mine when there's actual interest in it so kudos to Encyclopedia for that.



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